Race around Egypt
by samedifferences
Summary: Ch 1: Revamped! Bakura needs to find 'the secret' by following complex riddles a goddess left on earth to protect 'the secret' from the evil possessing Bakura. BakuraxMalik for a while.


**Race around Egypt**

A/N: Hiyaz! Read this ficcy! I changed it for the better…hopefully lolz

This is the totally changed first chapter of Race around Egypt. I really hated the other chapter, and I just wrote it because I wanted to get to the second chapter. But I read it again and hated it so much, that I spent an hour replanning this chapter and changing it completely! Hope you still like it though Atem's Queen : : I think this one's better..and makes a lot more sense.

Umms. This might be a little bit Malik, Bakura. For now wink wink. Bakura has to solve a puzzle to defeat the darkness consuming him. Its better than it sounds actually, explanations will be in the story. Clues for the riddle will be up next chapter so…yeah. Read and review!

Disclaimer: I don't own yu-gi-oh

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Bakura was doubled over, clutching his chest. His lungs felt like they were going to give out and his body was being attacked by pain and fire. He glanced over his shoulder, hoping he'd escaped. Something even darker than the darkness enveloping Bakura's soul room was coming towards him. It laughed menacingly at his shocked face. He had run for what felt like miles, and yet this thing had still managed to follow him. Was there no escape? He asked himself.

The dark continued to move closer to Bakura.

"Don't try to out run me." It said. Or more Bakura thought it said as its voice was far too loud to be able to clearly comprehend.

Bakura ran.

The being laughed at Bakura's efforts and suddenly appeared in front of Bakura.

Bakura couldn't see the being properly, but he did manage to feel a sudden iciness creep over his body.

"I'll spare you for now." The darkness rumbled after an eternity of nothingness. "But you shall obey me when the time comes…" And with that, the darkness forced Bakura away from him and disappeared.

Bakura blinked his eyes, jerking in surprise at the strange sight in front of him. One of his hands was clutching the cloth of a slim boy while his other was raised and curled into a fist. The boy himself was cut and bleeding tremendously. Blood seemed to spurt out of every opening possible and rained down onto the ground. The boy's eyes were closed, and his skin was cold to the touch and deathly pale.

_No._ Bakura whispered in his mind and flung the boy away from him. _No…Not again._ This boy was dead. And judging by the sticky substance sprinkled across his face and knuckles, it was he who killed him.

_Why don't I remember? _He questioned himself, backing away from the body subconsciously. _And what was that dream?_ All these unanswered questions flung themselves around in his mind confusingly as he sank to the ground, his eyes staring at the dead boy in front of him.

_Wha-_ His thought was cut off by a faint warm tickle at the back of his mind. He mentally probed at it, but his touch seemed to repel it. It tickled his mind again. He swiveled his head around and turned to stare behind him, but there was nothing.

He peered into the shadows once more before turning back around. He saw something strange happening to the wall behind where the boy lay. It was strange; some sort of writing had appeared.

It said '_You seek the ruler who defeated the earth and was defeated himself by the revenge.'_

Bakura stared, surprised, at the writing that had appeared while his head was turned. He blinked at it. What was it written with? He peered a little closer and saw it was written in a very dark red. Blood red.

Bakura gasped in surprise. _It can't be the boy's…blood, can it?_ He denied. But he could deny it no longer. Blood that was pooled around the boy's body, rose into the air and crashed against the wall. They formed more words.

'_It's secret lies beneath the unrightful, found between what the sea's spawn protects against and the folded arms of life.'_

Bakura froze in shock and then fell down, unconscious.

The sun warmed his icy body and he bathed in the warm refreshing rays of light. He sighed in delight, before-

"Oh my Ra!" Bakura choked out when the hazy fuzz of unconsciousness was brushed away from his mind. He quickly glanced around him. He didn't see a body, but the words were still on the wall, it's bright dark red clashing with the dull brown of the wall.

Bakura just looked in horror. _It wasn't a dream…_His hopes of denial crashed down, broken into pieces. Then he noticed something, sleeping beside him.

"Nnngh," Bakura grunted out, not bothering about words while he scrambled as far as possible away from the body. He stared at it in horror, picturing blood and pale skin.

Instead, after a few moments of twisted visions being pictured in his mind, he noticed that the body was tanned, and looked very much alive. It was wearing a strange purple cloth type thing, and black pants.

Bakura circled the figure before tentatively inching towards him. He knelt, a good few meters away from the…boy, he realized. "Hey!" Bakura shouted at him, trying to startle him out of his slumber.

Bakura crept a little closer.

"Hey!" Bakura shouted, still not receiving a response.

He crept closer still and reached out a trembling finger to prod the boy's shoulder.

Large amethyst eyes slowly opened and looked at Bakura.

The boy looked bewilderedly at Bakura and started to move back before he froze. His body stopped mid motion and his eyes lost all their color except for the black pinprick of a pupil.

Light seemed to trickle out of the boy's skin and glow around his body. He floated to his feet and Bakura let out an, "Eep!" before falling backwards.

The boy opened his mouth and screamed out light. Intense, white light emanated out of his mouth, engulfing the two of the boy's in the brightest light Bakura had ever seen. Bakura squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the light. But it felt like it was reaching Bakura through his skin.

He felt a part of him tear away and be blown backwards, far away from him. The light slowly dimmed.

Bakura looked up, feeling a cool hand cupping his cheek. He opened his eyes to see…nothing but a bright light in front of him. He blinked blearily, straining his eyes to see who was in the center of that white light. Failing, he averted his eyes because the brightness started to hurt them.

"_It's okay Bakura," _soothing voices rang out, saying the same words at the same time much like a choir of voices.

"_You're safe now." _It told him. Strangely enough, Bakura believed it.

"Wha-What are yo-Who are you?" He stammered out in the direction of the light.

"_I cannot tell you_." It stated simply.

"Oh…okay, what do you want with me then?" He asked, confused.

"_You have the misfortune of being the vessel for evil. I am here to aid you in ridding it. The darkness can control your body when it feels the need. I have temporarily dispelled it." _It answered.

_Oh,_ Bakura thought mentally, _the darkness…is that what killed the boy…and wrote that message._

"_No," _The being told Bakura, reading his thoughts. _"The darkness killed the boy. It was I who left you the message."_

"Y-you wrote it in blood though…the boy's blood." Bakura said.

"_Yes, I did not have the strength to talk to you like I am now. I can only do so now for a little while with Malik's strength. But it is not for long. I do not want to drain Malik,"_ The being replied.

_Malik?_ Bakura thought to himself. "What did that message mean?" He asked the being, too confused to think about anything.

"_Ah…"_ The being replied thoughtfully, "_That riddle is written in blood. It is a spell I cast when I lived in your world. It activated when the evil inside you killed an innocent. I once took the blood of that evil, and added it in my spell. It can track down the evil that way…"_ The being trailed off.

Bakura remained silent, reviewing all that the being had just told him.

"_The riddle will tell you how to defeat the evil. I left it on earth when I had to leave, to protect the secret. It will give knowledge to the worthy, and repel the weak or evil. You must succeed and rid the earth of this evil. You must."_ The voice told him. Some of it's voices seemed to have died down, leaving only one or two left. _"Malik shall help you,"_ It echoed softly around Bakura before dying out completely.

"Wait! Don't go yet, who…who's Malik." Bakura shouted at nothing before he was whipped out of the whiteness and back into his body.

He gasped as his soul returned to his body. Bakura slowly stood up again, his mind full of thoughts about the white entity, the riddle and what it meant, why the evil had chosen him to inhabit and who this 'Malik' was. Bakura's wandering gaze landed on the body of the boy close to him.

"Malik," Bakura whispered, crawling towards him. _He must be._

The boy was lying on his back, his eyes gazing up at the sky. He noticed Bakura but didn't move.

"This is confusing," Malik said casually to Bakura.

"I understand why you have to run around Egypt, chasing a riddle. But why do I? I'm not being overpowered by evil. Why must I help you?" He asked Bakura.

Bakura didn't reply. He didn't know why Malik had to help him.

"Maybe you're searching for something as well." Bakura said. _There must be a reason that Malik has to help me. We just don't know it yet. _He thought.

"That's not good enough." Malik said, starting to get angry. "Why do I have to be dragged along in _your_ quest? It's always about someone else…" he looked away, his eyes starting to well up with tears that he refused to let fall.

Bakura just stared perplexed. He barely knew this boy, but he felt a strange sense of protectiveness. He looked at the boy with large round eyes.

He crept closer to Malik and put his arm around his waist. "Don't cry." He mumbled bashfully. Bakura didn't usually comfort anyone. He hadn't even tried to comfort anyone for several years.

Malik's tears evaporated and he stared at Bakura before pushing him roughly away from him. Malik stood up and glared down at Bakura. "I don't need your sympathy." Malik spat at Bakura, turning to walk away.

But instead of walking away from Bakura, he moved closer to Bakura. "What?" Malik said, surprised. He struggled and tried to walk away again, but he only moved closer until his back was nearly pressed against Bakura's arm.

"What are you doing!" Malik growled angrily at Bakura, but he didn't try to walk away again.

"Me? I'm not doing anything." Bakura shot back. He wasn't. He watched with interest as Malik once again tried to escape, only to be dragged back by an invisible force, this time, pushing him closer to Bakura until their feet were touching.

'_Malik shall help you,'_ Bakura thought to himself, quoting the deity's words. He grinned to himself. "This is how you get him to help me?"

"What?" Malik asked Bakura, forgetting about escaping.

Bakura repeated the deity's words while Malik glared at him.

"So it's that body stealer that did this," He frowned. "But why me?" He asked more to himself than Bakura.

"Maybe you really do have something to look for, like I have something to look for." Bakura repeated his earlier statement. He looked at Malik thoughtfully, wondering what the boy needed to find, or find out.

"Mmm…I guess I do." Malik said, realization ringing in his voice. Bakura raised an eyebrow at Malik, but didn't question him further.

_Maybe this has to do with** that**…_Malik thought to himself.

"Well, let's get started." Malik poked Bakura playfully. His mood changing drastically for a reason only Malik knew. 'Tell me that puzzle again."

"Umm… Okay, _You seek the ruler who defeated the earth and was defeated himself by revenge._ _It's secret lies beneath the unrightful, found between what the sea's spawn protects against and the folded arms of life._" Bakura quoted.

"Hmm…" Malik thought hard. "It mentions the word ruler, do you think that could mean Pharaoh?" He asked Bakura.

"Yeah, that fits. We'll go see if there was a Pharaoh who defeated the earth and was defeated again. I think we'll concentrate on the first sentence," Bakura said, _since the second line makes no sense at all. _

"Alright. Um... Can we go eat first?" Malik asked Bakura after his stomach let out a particularly angry growl.

"Do you have any money?" Bakura asked Malik, looking at his own stomach worriedly after it let out a small gurgle.

Malik patted his non-existent pockets. "Nope," he said cheerfully. "But you can just steal some food right?"

Bakura stared at Malik. "What if I can't steal?" He retorted.

"Sure you can, how else would you have gotten that golden necklace, and those clothes. You don't look like the type to buy anything when you can steal it!" Malik cheekily said, poking Bakura's expensive looking clothes, before withdrawing his hand like he had been burned.

Bakura just growled and flipped his hair, walking off towards the city. _I wonder what that boy's hiding,_ Bakura thought to himself.

Malik walked a little behind Bakura, gazing at nothing in particular with a speculative expression lingering in his eyes the only emotion visible on an otherwise expressionless face.

Unbeknownst to the two self absorbed teens, they were no longer attached to each other.

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A/N: Hope you liked it! Please read and review. But you don't have to heh heh, it would make me happy though smiles


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